Finland-Helsinki

Marg and Tall Ships in Helsinki Harbour, Finland

We were quite excited arriving in Helsinki the capital of Finland, to find an array of beautiful Tall Ships there. 

Helsinki is on the Gulf of Finland, just opposite Tallinn in Estonia. We’d been visiting Tallinn, and so decided to get a ferry across the Gulf.

So after finding secure parking for our motorhome in Tallinn, we caught the ferry as foot passengers. After an hour and a half, we docked at the bustling port of Helsinki, right in the downtown area.

It was colourful, vibrant and exciting, with interesting looking buildings, busy trams, and a bustling market.

Leigh at the market square, Helsinki, Finland

We wandered through the market square which was full of tourist goodies and lots of food stalls. We bought a huge plate of Lapland food consisting of little fresh-water fish and potatoes, which was delicious. 

After that, we found our way to our hotel, left our bags, and set off to explore further.

Helsinki is the capital of Finland, a Nordic country dating back to around 9000 BC. Founded in 1550, Helsinki these days is a big city with a population of about 600,000. 

The city is centred on the port area, and being on the Gulf of Finland, is full of bays, inlets and islands. We thought it was lovely.

Marg in front of Helsinki Cathedral, Finland

While exploring, we couldn’t help but notice the extraordinarily imposing Helsinki Cathedral, which is an Evangelical Lutheran church built to honour the Russian Tsar Nicolas I. 

It sits atop a hill on Senate Square, reached via a giant staircase. Also on the Square, we saw the Government Palace, the University, and National Library of Finland – all impressive buildings.

We loved walking round this wonderfully vibrant city, and soon found the Esplanade Park which is a promenade through the city centre. After following the Esplanade for a while, we wandered south of the city centre, and came across Kasarmitori Square, and some architectural delights.

Art Nouveau buildings, Kasarmitori square, Helsinki

These were three Art Nouveau buildings attractively huddled together, and dating back to the early 1900’s. We later discovered that Helsinki has a lot of similar architecture that really adds character to the city.

The rest of Kasarmitori Square is flanked by the imposing Ministry of Defence building, other Art Nouveau buildings and now offices, and restaurants.

Leaving there we found the delightfully neo-Gothic style Design Museum. This lovely red brick building houses a wonderful collection of Finnish designs that include furniture and other eclectic items from 1870 to the present. Some of the designs were incredible!

Marg outside the Temppeliaukio Church, Helsinki

We walked for ages, seeing many interesting places. One of these was the Temppeliaukio Church in the Töölö district. This amazing round church has a beautiful copper roof and is built into solid rock. It looks a bit like a spaceship that landed. 

Earlier, we had visited the red brick Uspenski Cathedral which is the largest Orthodox Church in Western Europe. It has lovely golden onion-shaped domes, reminiscent of the Russian churches we saw a few weeks ago.

In the late afternoon, having walked so far, we were glad to head back to the hotel and a meal at a local restaurant. What a wonderful day we’d had.

Marg at King's Gate, Suomenlinna Island, Helsinki

The next morning, we caught a small ferry to Suomenlinna Island which contains the remains of a fortress built in the 1700’s. We entered through the impressive King’s Gate, to learn that the fortress was Finland’s and Sweden’s eastern-most defence. 

The fortress is one of the largest sea forts in the world, and as a unique monument to European military architecture, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The Island was full of caves, old cannons, a church, village buildings, cafes and even a submarine called Vesikko, which served the Finnish Navy during the war of 1939-44. 

Leigh at Submarine Vesikko on Suomenlinna Island, Helsinki, Finland

It is the only surviving German Type II submarine in the world, and we were able to go inside it and experience what it was like living and working in such a confined space. 

 

Relaxing on the ferry’s return trip to Helsinki, we agreed it had been another wonderful day.

Back in the city, we did a little stocktake of everything we’d seen. Apart from the places mentioned above, we’d walked the main street called Mannerheimintie and seen interesting shops and places such as the Helsinki Music Center, the Finnish Parliament Building, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. We’d also gone into districts outside the city centre, and found markets, churches and more lovely architecture.

House on a small island in the Gulf of Finland near Helsinki

But we had a lot more to see in this part of Europe, so caught the big ferry back from Helsinki to Tallinn. It was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so, seeing the islands of the Gulf slip by, and admiring the many leisure craft, and shipping life in general.

While we’d seen quite a lot of Helsinki, we were left feeling like we’d like to see more, and especially more of Finland – but it will have to be at another time.

Arriving back in Tallinn, we collected our motorhome Vanni, and drove back to the Port of Tallinn for the night.

The next morning, we resumed our drive around Estonia – our adventures leaving Tallinn are recorded in the Estonia blog.

This blog describes part of our 6-month motorhome trip around northern and eastern Europe, which began in Prague.